in which the heart finds shelter
by theparisian
Summary: Emotions had the worst timing in the world, and love is just a pain in the derriere for everyone- Just admit it. Nobility can't help you there either. "Will you wait, Inuyasha? Please?" InuKag


Because I'm terribly bored and thought up the scene with Kagome in a tree and decided to make this horrendously cheesy and cliché plotline. Some Kikyo-bashing, but it's not major. Enjoy,

Sidenote: I don't know how nobility works; in my story, each country (or large region, whatever.) has a noble, which culminates in the leader of the whole country, King and Queen. **MOST NOBLES ARE**_** NOT**_** RELATED.** Was that confusing? Possibly.

Title: in which the heart finds shelter  
>Rated: PG-13 T  
>Summary: Emotions had the worst timing in the world, and love is just a pain in the derriere for everyone- Just admit it. Nobility can't help you there either. "Will you wait, Inuyasha? Please?"<p>

* * *

><p>The heart is so infinitely complex and the human mind is so infinitely <em>not.<em>

Yet at the small age of eight years old, bright eyes brimming with curiosity and hope- hope so, so wide and so very cheery that it broke everyone's heart whenever her light eyes darkened- Kagome found herself hiding behind a table filled with pastries and fountains and fountains of drinks spilling out, with her baby brother Souta toddling around, babbling to himself.

"Don't you think his eyes are…extraordinary?" She grinned when the word came out smoothly. "Extraordinary. That's the _only _word to describe him- well, his eyes- baby Souta. Extraordinary."

Souta reached for a peach tart and smashed it on his mess of dark hair, peaches entangled on his head, but Kagome didn't pay any attention. She sighed and kneeled lower, bending so low that only her nose and up showed.

"Gold! Like mother's ring. Wouldn't it be nice to have eyes the color of a promise?" Kagome smiled wistfully. "Gold is really a color of promise, Souta. Because it's in wedding rings and sunshine…Wedding rings and sunshine have so much promise!"

Souta waddled away, and Kagome honestly didn't mind. He wasn't doing something that was much a nuisance, or drew attention to her. She much preferred hiding behind the desserts table, behind a fountain that spewed tooth-achingly sweet chocolate and observe the boy with the hair the color of silver and eyes the color of amber.

Kagome observed his family. Another boy, much older, with the same coloured hair and golden eyes; yet his eyes were as cold as lonely winter's day. She certainly found it curious, though, when scrutinizing the younger boy's, his eyes were stoic and would certainly scowl if eyes could scowl, but the feeling in his eyes, it was like sunshine trying to edge its way out of a horribly cloudy day; pained and tired and possibly angry, angry at the world.

His father, a man who stood with perfect posture that Kagome nearly groaned in envy because her teacher had been pushing to have posture like that for _years, _looked around with mild interest and overall tiredness, just like the younger boys before she heard her father's nearby voice.

"InuTaisho! InuTaisho, how do you do?"

She gasped and ducked, nearly crying out in relief when she noticed the table covers drooped down to the floor, and thanking God that her mother chose thick, tasselled covers. Crawling, Kagome listened. She was always a good listener (when she wanted to be), her mother noted.

"Very well."

"Izayoi?"

"Not in the most preferable state of health."

"My apologies. Nodoka, dear, this is InuTaisho. InuTaisho, this is my wife."

"Oh, where's the kids? Souta, ah, your hair. Oh…Ka-"

Successfully making it beside her parents, Kagome popped up and her lips broke into a silly grin and pretended to salute like her father's army people she always saw marching around without any smiles.

"Kagome! Kagome, present!" She cried, before stomping one foot in conclusion. Akio Higurashi, always the man to chuckle at anyone's antics, supressed a laugh with a tightened grin while Nodoka simply sighed before giving a light smile at someone. Her vision focusing, Kagome nearly gasped, seeing the InuTaisho man was accompanied by the cold boy and…him.

"These are my children. Souta, age three and Kagome, age eight."

At cue, Souta bowed and Kagome curtsied, albeit breathing heavily. Her mother always spoke on how someday Kagome would find a man, a man who wouldn't care about nobility, dresses, money but about _her, _about _togetherness, _and her heart swelled as her eyes lifted up to the boy when she straightened from her curtsy.

"They're charming," Inutaisho said earnestly, giving a smile to the peach-covered Souta and nodding to Kagome with a slight twinkle in his eyes. "Well, this is Sesshomaru and Inuyasha," He gestured to the older boy than the younger boy, respectively.

"Your wife," Nodoka suddenly began. "Our doctors- not to be sound absorbed, of course- are considered the best and would certainly like to see Izayoi and offer any treatment that can help her with her ailment…"

Kagome couldn't help but realize the widening of Inutaisho's eyes and the sudden ray of hope that shone in Inuyasha's, so very briefly that when she blinked it was gone. With their parents conversing, Kagome took a few steps forward and sidled beside Inuyasha.

"Hello,"

"Feh," He responded, and Kagome wondered if it was even a word. Feh. How strange yet inexplicably suited for Inuyasha, the boy with the hardened eyes of promise.

"Is Izayoi your mother?"

Inuyasha glared at Kagome with such intensity that she had to pull away, her cheeks heating up and her eight-year-old mind (and heart) bursting with questions and no answers to be given. He finally replied; "Yes."

"I do hope your mother gets better. Tea is always good. Illnesses are awful, aren't they? I hope she gets better. I can tell she's a good mother." Kagome rambled on before snapping her mouth closed at the look Inuyasha was giving her.

"…'Kay." He said. Watching him curiously, she noticed that he was older (obviously, because he towered her by a couple of inches), but also because of the way his eyes looked sad and horribly, horribly irritated at the same time, maturing his overall face. Bringing all the courage an eight-year-old could muster, Kagome spoke.

"Ne, Inuyasha…Inuyasha, will you wait?"

Curiosity flickering in his eyes, Inuyasha studied the strange girl, with dark hair falling to her shoulders, unlike the chignons the other women sported in the mixer gala. "Huh?" He snapped.

"Wait. Until your mother better and until we're older enough. Will you wait, Inuyasha? Please?" Kagome stared at him hopefully. "Wait and we'll get married?"

"Marriage?" Inuyasha cried in disbelief. Sesshomaru's eyes flickered towards the kids before looking straightforward again, uninterested. "Marriage? I ain't getting married to _anyone!"_

Her heart, so big and much too big and confusing and contradicting for her body, deflated until she felt her eyes threaten to betray her and her whole world- _her whole world- _spinning.

"No..one?" She whispered, in the voice so meek and tiny that the world seemed so rudely loud to her ears.

With a glare, Inuyasha turned his back to Kagome and regarded his father as he discussed with Kagome's parents. As she trudged back to her parents' side of the conversation with her head held high and her tears pushed back, Kagome realized it was stupid.

And well…so was Inuyasha.

X

eleven years later  
>(with memories faded and hearts locked)<p>

On the highest- and most stable- branch of the high oak tree of the Higurashi shrine, lay a girl with a simple evergreen dress that draped across the branches, tresses tumbling down her shoulders graceful yet in a rebellious way at the same time and eyes as bright as summer with a challenging air around it.

"Everything's about her," Kagome threw up her hands in exasperation. "Kikyo, Kikyo, Kikyo. Oh and by the way, holy _heavens, _is her name unattractive. Just say it a lot."

"Yours is prettier!" A fiery-haired child cried instantaneously from below the tree before he blew bubbles into the air before extinguishing them with a little fire that manifested from his palm. "Kikyo is a strain on your tongue."

"Oh, Shippo, she's a strain on everyone." Kagome paused, pulling a ragged leaf from the oak leaves and twiddling it between her delicate fingers. "Maybe it's just me, but disregard that. She's better at archery, a godsend in healing, just breathtaking in demon exorcising and prayers. People should just go claim her a goddess, Shippo!"

Shippo giggled, partly at Kagome's ranting, her soft voice paired with harsh words that drifted in the summer breeze, and partly at the deformed bubble he blew.

"Kikyo is stupid, and nobility is also." Kagome crushed the oak leaf and spattered its remains around her evergreen dress, one of her favourites because of the tell-tale signs of adventures she had- the tear in the petticoat from the time a snake dragged it venomous teeth across it, the brooch that was tightly secured at the bottom given to her by her maternal grandfather and the splatter of pink paint on her left shoulder from the time she painted a ceramic pot for her mother.

"But you get such nice things. I- _we- _get such nice things!" Shippo countered lightly, careful not to upset Kagome. He knew Kagome would never snap at him; she only snapped when the maids made her corset so tight that she could barely breathe and when Souta was being a nuisance. But never to Shippo.

"What good are things_,_ if you have a _huge, ginormous _world to explore! I mean," She peered through the branches to see Shippo's face of pure amazement as he stared at the castle (which in all honesty was actually one of the smallest estates of the nobility in the country) and prepared to counter with that. "What I mean is, yes, the castle is good, but every nook and cranny has been mapped out. The world…not really."

"That's a bit frightening though! What if you land into a swamp of alligators!" Shippo shivered. "Alligators are nasty!"

"Well…that would be horribly nasty. But, Shippo, I'm nineteen. You see, life's is short."

"Short," The word sounded odd and foreign in this context to the boy's lips. "Not at all, really."

"Oh, but it is Shippo. You're little. Everything's still amazing to you for now," She murmured the last part wistfully and unobtrusively, and looked fondly at the orange-haired boy from below, hoping his sweet innocence would never be tainted.

Shippo frowned. He absolutely _detested _that kind of answer. _Oh, Shippo, you're young. You don't understand. _He found himself to be quite clever enough to understand a lot of things. Except on where babies get out of the mother's stomach. That was a mystery that perplexed him.

"I'm not too young, Kagome! Life isn't short! I mean, that old man in the east of Sekiei is ninety-two. Ninety-two, Kagome! That's almost a hundred!"

"I'm nineteen, Shippo," She repeated, sliding off the tallest branch and gripping onto the one directly below. Taking a deep breath and pressing the arch of her feet on the branch, she lifted herself up with a huff. "Old man Myoga averaged out the age of death in Sekiei. It came out to be seventy-three. Seventy-three, Shippo! That's not a lot."

"Seems a lot to me, Kagome. I mean, if I had seventy-three lollipops, that'd be a lot!" Shippo cried, his mouth watering at the thought of all those lollipops. "Enough to last a lifetime."

He jumped when he heard a _thud, _and turned around to see Kagome attempting to balance herself after jumping off the oak tree. With a lopsided smile, she steadied.

"Not if you eat it every day," She corrected, ruffling Shippo's hair. He chuckled and smiled up to Kagome. She quite liked the kitsune yokai boy, who was allowed to live in the estate as long as he helped around with odd jobs. "What I mean is…I don't want to be Kikyo. Cooped up in nobility and names and dresses and heirs. I'd like to be Kagome."

"You are…Kagome…" Shippo cocked his head to the side, confused as Kagome gave a light laugh and handed him a strawberry-bubblegum lollipop before he began to prune the flora in the Higurashi shrine gardens.

As quietly as she could, Kagome entered the house and brushed off the twigs and cracked leaves off her dress, musing to herself. She sounded cliché. The rebel royalty who wanted out of all the silliness. In the end, Kagome always found anything she said stupid. Sighing with all the inconsistencies, she decided she would like to study her geography when Souta burst into the hallway and opened his mouth.

"SHE'S HERE, KAGOME'S HERE! MAMA, PAPA!"

"Souta, shush! People might think we're in danger!" Kagome scolded before she started scampering up the stairs. Nodoka appeared out of the nowhere at the top of the stairs and signalled her to descend. With a sigh of defeat, Kagome descended.

"I was with Shippo. I didn't do anything!" She squeaked.

"Yeah, Mama, Papa. She didn't seduce the mailman to give her your present early for her eighteenth birthday like last year. Cut her some slack." Souta snickered. Giving him a pointed look, Kagome got Souta to shuffle back behind their father.

"Honey, you're getting married!" Nodoka blurted out. Souta pursed his lips in confusion as Akio shot a look of half-amusement and half-contempt at his wife before proceeding. Already sensing the explanation, Kagome crumpled her hair with her fists and groaned.

"Mama, Papa…Ah, oh crap-"

"Crap! Kagome!" Nodaka interjected, but Kagome continued.

"Guys…this is intolerably formulaic. A noblesse gets married off to some man who she barely knows for some sort of reason? Please…no. No, no, no."

"Calm yourself, Kagome. This is more than just heightening status, love. It's about health to…for Izayoi."

Kagome flinched as she dug through her brain to try and locate the memory, but it was nowhere to be found. Sighing, and suddenly very exasperated, she looked from her father to her mother.

"Who is Izayoi?"

"The wife of InuTaisho, marquess of Seigyoku. She's been ill for a while…but it's gotten worse."

"Much, much worse." Her father added grimly. Baffled, Kagome scowled.

"Uh, so I have to marry the wife of Seigyoku-"

"No!" Akio Higurashi laughed, a hearty laugh that filled up Kagome's soul, like a tight hug or a warm cup of tea. "No…Her son though."

"Her son," Kagome deadpanned. Her life was filled with age-old formulas. Perhaps she would dislike her future fiancé and fall in love with a humble and charming commoner, or (everyone's favourite!) dislike the son but slowly fall in love with him, so in love that it would culminate in them having a heated make out session in which they delved into their suppressed lust.

(Lovely.)

"Who is-?"

"Oh you've met him," Nodoka said. "At that mixer gala a couple of years back. Inuyasha."

"Inuyasha," The name sounded like foreign; like a food that she hadn't eaten in a while. Yet she couldn't remember it, or pinpoint the names at all. "Well…how will getting married to Izayoi's son aid her?"

"Well, you see, the treatment that's available here in Hisui. But only Hisui nobles are allowed the treatment. Even though we are nobles, we cannot persuade the medical community to make this treatment available to Izayoi. Seigyoku is particularly fond of Izayoi; I consider her a friend and she's kind and witty and a great marchioness overall."

"Just keep pressing then medical officials then," Souta piped, and Kagome's eyes widened with hope when her brother stepped in for her defense. "I mean, there must be loopholes. Right, Papa?

"Sorry, Souta. They said- quite fervently, actually- that they only want it to be available in Hisui because it's still in its alpha stage of testing and they don't want it to land in foreign hands because of the potential twisting of its powerful benefits."

Souta, who could not counter with the argument with his fifteen year old mind, sighed, looking at Kagome apologetically. She smiled sadly, still grateful.

"Please." Was all she could muster. "Mama, you always said-"

"Izayoi…she needs to live. Their country is falling and there are many deceptive people out there for the throne, love. We must help our neighbouring countries…for one day we might need them."

"Another cliché, Mama." Kagome murmured under her mouth. "Sell your daughter for your country. Always for your country. _Always,"_

"I truly am sorry, Kagome. Inuyasha is a fine man, and I'm sure you'll like him."

"Everyone'll say that. Just watch," Kagome muttered, before looking at each of her family members with a look that was both scathing and mournful. "It's not like I have a choice."

Without any comforting rebuttal, the other three stayed silent as Kagome looked out the window and stared at the oak tree, and in her mind, silently blew a kiss to a life outside of names and dresses and heirs. Without looking at her family, Kagome ran up the stairs and crashed into the velvet fainting couch in her room, closing her door behind her.

She heard murmuring from below but tuned it out, careful not to cry because whenever she cried, she _knew _she looked stupid, _she knew _that what she was crying for was stupid and senseless reason. Kagome might as well wave away her maiden life with dignity (and fewer tears. Tears were empty and useless)

Suddenly, knocking resounded in Kagome's room.

"Kagome, come out, please! Let's have some tea; I just got Shippo to run for some oolong tea." Souta's sighed was muffled by the tea. "You love oolong tea."

"Souta, out!" Kagome screamed, her voice weak but she willed herself to not let those damned tears fall. "I don't need damn tea!"

"Kagome-"

Lifting herself off the fainting couch, she felt all the anger billowing at the pit of her stomach manifest into her voice. "Souta, _leave!" _

She heard some murmuring and the sound of descending people before she crashed into the couch again, feeling horribly guilty and angered. After all, Souta was simply trying to calm his feisty sister. Tired, Kagome buried her face as deep into the velvety pillow as she possibly could and slept.

She dreamed of a horizon, bright and promising and vast, that was out of her reach.

x

"It's gorgeous,"

"Yes, Kagome, it really is."

Shippo simply grinned up at his 'sister' as Kagome stared dejectedly at the mirror, her eyes looking bright and her body looking flawless, but her mind so very tired. Swathed in a dress that was simple and brought the light blue in her eyes, the Higurashi family prayed she would catch the eye of Inuyasha.

"Sea foam is befitting for you, Kagome." Nodoka stated fondly. "And the bodice is lovely. Ume did a great job."

"She did," Kagome admitted, while her head was dizzy and the corset felt too tight, but she knew that she was simply stubborn and drained and everything she wore seemed two sizes too tight (and she d_efinitely _wasn't fat- all she was eating was peanut butter sandwiches and oolong tea).

"Lady Kagome Higurashi, Inuyasha awaits."

"Go," Shippo whispered, tugging at the hem of Kagome's dress. Souta and Nodoka gave a subtle thumbs-up as the maid led the pair down a spiral marble staircase, lined with paintings of nature and sometimes people. Absorbed in a painting of a beautiful woman, with porcelain skin and hair as dark as a lonely night, Kagome tripped but steadied herself before her face met the floor.

"Oh," she hissed. The maid smiled.

"That is Marquess InuTaisho's wife, Izayoi. She is quite breathtaking."

"She is," Kagome agreed quietly before tearing her eyes away from the kindred yet haunting eyes of Marchioness Izayoi's, following the maid into a large room- the dining hall.

It was larger than the Higurashi shrine's (actually, every house of a noble was larger than the Higurashi's. Akio preferred the humble yet large shrine of Nodoka's father to the mansion that was offered), with varnished furniture and delicate china displayed. At the very end sat Akio Higurashi, InuTaisho and the permanent roadblock to her life: Inu-freaking-yasha.

Curtsying, Kagome took a deep breath before composing her face into a honeyed smile. "Good afternoon, Marquess Inutaisho, Father, Sir Inuyasha."

"Good day, Kagome. Take a seat. Miki, pour Lady Kagome some tea, if you will."

Giving a genuine smile, Miki the maid poured white tea into Kagome's cup, Kagome's least favourite. Wincing, she nodded and took a sip.

"Good luck," Miki whispered as quietly as she could in her ear. Kagome smiled, a regular one instead of a fabricated one, but the seed of doubt was placed into her already troubled mind. Sneaking a glance at Inuyasha as Miki strode away from the dining hall, she noticed he was frowning, leaning against the chair and staring at the ceiling.

"Inuyasha," InuTaisho hissed, snapping him back to reality. He gave a bitter stare at his father before straightening.

"So, I'm getting married to her." Inuyasha jerked a thumb at Kagome, as if she were the china instead of a girl with flesh and a heart and a mouth which she was currently attempting to hold in her fuming. Quickly, she downed her tea so the scalding heat would cause her to not snap at him.

"For your mother, Inuyasha." InuTaisho replied stiffly, as if it took everything to hold in a lecture for his youngest son. Loudly, Kagome took a sip of tea, eliciting a sharp glance from her father.

"I'd like to request to be added into the conversation." She demanded lightly, with a smile. Inuyasha let out a loud scoff.

"Wow," he muttered, which earned him a scowl from InuTaisho. It seemed that no one was agreeing with each other. Feeling the atmosphere, Akio gave an exasperated sigh.

"Well, the wedding will hardly be a wedding. A nice dress for Kagome, Inuyasha in some proper attire, barely any people, signing of papers, a small dinner."

Her heart sank. Kagome was never the girl to blank out with a longing look on her face, thinking about shoes and hair and boys. But like every girl, she expected a wedding, simple but classy at the very least. She wouldn't even get beautiful flowers scattered around, from the looks of it. Willing herself to not look away in pain, Kagome nodded.

"It's agreeable." InuTaisho nodded, shooting a look at Inuyasha, who mumbled something and shrugged.

"Right," Akio nodded, "Well, let's make some exchanges with people in Hisui, and talk a bit with Izayoi and Nodoka." InuTaisho nodded and examined Inuyasha and Kagome, a forlorn look on his face.

"There's quite a few papers to fill out and sign. We'll be back in a bit," he said with a sigh, passing down a packet of papers to Kagome and Inuyasha. Akio nodded and the two strode out before Kagome's father turned around and hissed quite loudly;

"Kids, don't pounce on anyone!"

InuTaisho let out an honest-to-goodness laugh and Akio chuckled at Kagome's heated face, topped with a frown. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, scoffing as the French doors closed, leaving the dining hall in silence.

"You're not exactly a stunner." Inuyasha suddenly said about a few minutes of silence. His voice was clear and somewhat rough, like it had experienced years of hardships and it left an impact. She flinched.

"Excuse me, you can't say much either," She snapped back. Inuyasha straightened from the paper he was examining, scrutinizing Kagome also. She noticed his sleek silver hair and eyes (dear God), eyes like pools of gold. Perhaps her rebuttal was a quarter of a lie, but that's it. It was just his eyes that were…interesting, to say the least.

"Nothing like Kikyo. I met her once, she's what you'd call drop-dead gorgeous." Inuyasha smirked, an all-knowing and smartass smirk that Souta sometimes gave to her, but this one had full-intention of beating her down.

"I'm not Kikyo's biggest fan but you're free to ogle…for now." She threw back the same smirk, feeling the dream of that marvellous horizon disappearing every time Inuyasha opened his damned mouth.

"You're gonna be a total bitch," Inuyasha muttered as he scribbled down something. Flinging aside a paper she finished with, Kagome gave him a hard stare.

"Screw you,"

"Can't even swear properly," Inuyasha laughed, a grin twitching at his lips as he looked up at her. Scowling and finishing off her last signature, Kagome stood up, her chair squeaking against the floor.

"I'm finished with the papers. Goodbye." She announced, jaw clenched and perspiration breaking out at her back from the fury bubbling inside her.

"See you, wench."

"Wench." Kagome murmured. "Wench,"

And in the one word, she knew how the rest of her life would be from now on.

x

"Get out!"

Kagome cried, throwing a fleece over the wedding dress before shoving it underneath the couch. Inuyasha, amused and perplexed, smirked as he lingered at the guest room door.

"You idiot! There's _knocking! _And the people would have my neck if you were to see my dress!" (Not that it would really matter, though, because this marriage is hopeless and suffocating already, Kagome thought)

"You believe in superstitions like that?"

"The people do," Kagome repeated, sighing. She straightened her back and faced the intricate mahogany vanity, brushing down her ribcage-length hair. Yet Inuyasha stayed.

It had two agonizing weeks at Seigyoku. Kagome appreciated the hospitality of InuTaisho and the people around the mansion, but the fittings and planning for a wedding that was not really a wedding caused Kagome to bury her head into a pillow at the end of every night and smother herself until she came up for air.

"So, what are you doing? I'll be going down in a minute, Inuyasha, the engagement party can continue without me," she insisted. Taking a shallow breath, Inuyasha shook his head. Exasperated, Kagome slammed the hairbrush on the vanity and turned to face him.

"_What? _Inuyasha, we're both annoyed with this. Please, just let me relax a teeny-tiny bit." She cried, throwing her hands up. Inuyasha blinked, and she swore disappointment flickered in his gold eyes.

"Feh,"

_(Feh?)_

"Huh?"

"My mother…she's back from the hospital just for a while. She can't attend the wedding but she's here…I wanted you to meet her."

"Oh," Kagome murmured, her features softening. "Oh," and suddenly she felt crying because she was so tired, and detested the feeling of guilt and this whole entire freaking marriage was to help the woman in the painting get better.

Holding his hand out, Kagome took it and lowered her head, listening to the clacks of her heels as they crossed the hall into a small room, thrice the size of the maid's closet, just a bed and machines ticking around. A sickly woman, paler than snow and sallow cheeks, slept and breathed shallowly, her dark hair in amazing contrast with the pillows and her complexion.

"Mother?"

No answer.

"She's asleep," Inuyasha concluded unnecessarily. Kagome nodded absentmindedly, her dainty fingers tracing the shape of the machines and the frame of Izayoi's bed before her eyes stopped on the woman who looked nothing like the beautiful painting, the illness robbing the woman of her looks and overall health. "Hey, Kagome."

"Yeah."

"You're that girl."

"That's specific," She looked at Inuyasha and rolled her eyes. "Mm?"

"You're that girl back when I was eleven."

"I'm sorry?" Kagome quirked up an eyebrow, because this was possibly the first conversation Inuyasha and her that was kept civil and she knew not to hope, because she learned that hope was sort of a foolish thing, but inevitably she found herself doing it.

"Well," Inuyasha leaned against a wall. "There was this mixer gala when I was eleven, and I think that's the first time the nobles of Hisui began helping my mother out…and I remember you were there. You were eight."

"Eight," Kagome nodded, there was a three year difference.

"Yeah…and you were talking to me and…you said that you wanted to get married to me."

And suddenly, Kagome remembered, like a memory that had been repressed in her mind for _years, _how she remembered peaches and promises and the inevitable dizziness of the cold shoulder of Inuyasha.

And then, she laughed. Laughed so hard that Inuyasha stared at her in alarm before murmuring something to her mother. A brief moment of guilt flickered in her mind but she laughed until her gut hurt and she collapsed against the wall and sunk down, shaking her head in disbelief.

"What? God, you could wake anyone up within a five-mile radius with your laughing!" Inuyasha hissed. Kagome buried her head in her hands and shook it, shook it because she couldn't believe it _at all._

(Oh, karma's not the only bitch. Words, words spoken by a naïve and silly eight year old are quite a bitch too.)

"My wish came true," She scoffed, her words wry and pained. "Freakin' hell,"

Inuyasha quirked up an eyebrow but stayed silent as Kagome lifted herself off the ground, gave a quick glance at him before scurrying down the steps hair still tangled and into the party.

Inuyasha watched his eternally confusing bride-to-be drift down the steps.

x

It rang in her head.

Like a taunt. The heavy, deep resounding of those church bells as they (Her…husband. Oh shit.) walked out of the church and into the carriage. They had dinner and it ended quickly, because of the obvious awkwardness lingering in the air. Kagome could hear them still.

_Ding ding ding._

It got louder and louder and reached a breaking point but Kagome removed the one-shoulder Grecian dress that was her wedding gown and into a simple coral sundress, snuck out to the backyard and climbed the tree that was anything but the lovely oak tree back in Hisui. She climbed to the highest branch and braced herself; the close sea of Seigyoku caused the air to be chilly, unlike the lukewarm air of Hisui. (But, at least the ringing of the church bells was gone, _thank God)_

It made her heart sink, thinking how she would probably never climbing that high, strong oak tree in the Higurashi shrine freely, without noble consorts wagging their fingers at her for being rough. She _detested _the sea air, the salty taste that filled her lungs. She hated everything (and Kagome was not the type to hate _everything.)_

Kagome closed her eyes, hoping remember how it felt on the oak tree when she heard rustling of branches. She barely had time to react when bright eyes of gold stared at her in the early- _really _early- hours of morning.

"Please don't-"

"Kagome?"

"Inu…yasha?" Kagome tilted her head to the side, regarding Inuyasha quick figure curiously as he suddenly leaped onto the branch across from her. "That was impossibly quick." (And graceful, she wanted to add, but that would earn her a smirk and a 'wench' comment, for sure.)

"I'm a hanyou." He reminded her dryly. Kagome aah'd, remembering before her features returned back into a frown.

"Why are you here?"

"Because I smelled you and I thought you got stuck in a tree like some dumbass cat," Inuyasha smirked. "You're not stuck, are you."

"I'm perfectly capable of climbing _and _descending trees, Inuyasha." Kagome retorted before turning her back from him and dismissing his presence. It was difficult though, because suddenly she felt her already unsteady branch become heavy with the company of her new hanyou husband.

"Hello again,"

"Get off," She whined. Inuyasha shook his head and opened his mouth, before closing it again, a hesitant look on his face. Kagome waited until he finally spoke.

"This was a shitty couple of weeks for you,"

"Well…" Kagome sighed. "Not _that _bad but just…"

"You hate it."

"Possibly. Still under maintenance." Kagome giggled softly, a sound that surprised her. Inuyasha nodded, his lips twitching.

"Can I ask you of something? Under a flag of truce,"

"Is that going to be a thing when we're married? Flag of truces?" Kagome teased with a light smile. Inuyasha shrugged before continuing.

"Wait."

Kagome tilted her head, perplexed before her continued.

"I mean, I know we're not best friends but…at least wait, please, wait and maybe we can understand each other and live peacefully…Because, well, in truth, uh, I don't want either of us to be unhappy." Inuyasha locked his eyes with Kagome's, and she studied his eyes, with the word extraordinary popping into her mind out of nowhere.

"Wait," She repeated, staring into his eyes. He nodded.

"Yeah, wait, because…we never know, you know." He shrugged casually but she noticed the unnatural flickering of his eyes, looking back at forth, sometimes glancing at Kagome and sometimes staring off to the horizon. Kagome found her heart feeling much less heavy as she smiled, a first real smile to Inuyasha, not fabricated with the urging of the royal consorts, or forced by the gestures of her mother.

"Unusually sensible coming from you."

"Surprised me too," Inuyasha replied with a smirk. They fell into a comfortable silence as they just sat on the branch, Kagome swinging her legs and Inuyasha breaking off twigs.

She found herself looking at his eyes, strange eyes, abnormal yet in place. Eyes that were disconsolate but with little golden flickers of anticipation, of anticipation that even Kagome couldn't even determine but it was better than a smartass stare, that was for sure.

Kagome stared at her wedding band, gold that flickered in the dim moonlight. Wait. Perhaps she'd reach that horizon. Maybe not tomorrow, or for years, but she'd reach it. Gold is the color of promise, after all.

* * *

><p><strong>Sentō<strong>

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I wanted to write something realistic. Of course I love some good ol' hatelove making out (lolwut). Sure this isn't completely emotionally realistic but I believe I did a good job and I actually…like it.  
><em>Please review!<em>

**_EDIT: _**I reread this and noticed so many spacing and grammar mistakes. I'm the type of author that types, types, types and never proofreads because I find that terribly exasperating (I KNOW, bad habit!). I proofread it and HOPEFULLY I caught all the mistakes. Sorry!


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